Yeah baby! Check out our view...

From the front balcony...

From the back garden...

Well, when I say garden, I actually mean estate...

Flossie's bed has a princess canopy and I am in a four poster. Flossie has her own bathroom with a roll top bath. This place rocks!

We arrived in Pisa late on Thursday night after our reasonably uneventful Ryanair flight. Rob experienced the triple whammy of driving on the right side of the road, in a manual car, up very windy mountainous roads to our Tuscan villa - something of a trial by fire! 

Dad and Caroline were there when we arrived, with a very welcome spaghetti dinner and lots of red wine. The children had fallen asleep in the car but managed to stay up 'til after 10 to eat and, in Freddie's case, meet his nana and granddad for the first time. 

Poor Floss looking pretty tired

 In the morning we woke to a spectacular sunny day to go with our 360 degree views.

This is granddad and Freddie with our posh Peugeot

We walked to our nearest village - apparently about 10 minutes walk, but the crutch/pram/Flossie factor put about 20 mins on that.

Corelia Antelminelli our local village

Nana and Flossie walking to the village

The boys having a rest

We stocked up on provisions and then walked up to the church at the top of the village, stopping for a drink on the way. Lunch was a delicious array of local cheese and meats that I successfully purchased with my very limited Italian at the local supermarket. I love Italy because even rubbish old Spar-like minimarts have a deli counter groaning with local delicacies.

We had a lazy rest of the day, although Rob and Flossie tried out the heated swimming pool complete with breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains. A combination being really overtired and having lentil casserole for dinner was not kind to Freddie (or me), who screamed on and off until 11.30pm, when he did a big fart and finally passed out.

Today we have been to Barga, a local village supposedly about 15 minutes away, but the conflicting GPS and WPS (wife positioning system) instructions, as well as novice right-side-of-the-road driving put another 15 mins on that!

Barga is a walled town with a Roman church overlooking the mountains at the top.

We had some lunch and then stopped for a gelato. Freddie worked out that Flossie's chocolate was the pick of the bunch and chased her around the piazza.

We've been swimming again this afternoon and Flossie is working her way through the villa's stash of Barbie DVDs. I think we are going for an apperitivo in the village this evening before coming home to put the children to bed and have some risotto made with the outrageously expensive dried porcini I bought in the market today.

Malta continued...

Our Maltese chill-out continues - not much new to report over the last few days. We managed a return trip to Valetta for a nice lunch and (for me and Freddie) a look round the very ornate cathedral and a couple of Caravaggio's.

Freddie enjoyed playing on the cathedral steps.

Flossie enjoyed sucking up spaghetti over lunch. [This is a movie - I'm not sure if I've uploaded it properly, so you may not be able to see it.]

We went back to the beach so that Rob could take Flossie canoeing. She got ready...

...but chickened out at the last minute. Rob had a solitary paddle and worked up enough of a sweat to manage a dip in the chilly Mediterranean.

Other than that there has been a few swims in the hotel pool, a lot of pizza eating and some colouring-in.

The area where we are staying has some really nice old buildings and very impressive doorways - I seem to have photographed blue ones here, but they come in a lovely palate of deep red, lime green, cream and teal.

     

Today we had a return visit to the Playmobil factory following persistent nagging from Flossie. I had a great massage this afternoon and then we went for a walk in the park over the road. Floss and I have done a bit of exploring in the park over the week and as well as cute ducklings we found a maze, which she thought was awesome fun, a very impressive peacock, some noisy chickens and lots of tortoiseshell cats.

On the way in, we saw some men with a pony and trap who had stopped for an ice-cream. A photo op for Floss.

Tomorrow, we have the challenge of meeting Ryan Air's stupid baggage restrictions before we fly to Pisa. I hope GPS lady is on form for our drive up into the Tuscan mountains to meet Dad and Caroline. I have lost considerable confidence in her since she instructed us to "Navigate off road" yesterday.

A lifetime's ambition realised...

We've been having a fairly quiet time in Malta. We have to drive if we want to get anywhere so that means one, or may be two, outings a day at the most. 

For some reason it has been difficult to sort out food here - restaurants often don't open til after 7pm, or they won't do pizza until after 7, or you can eat inside but not outside (despite a fantastic view), or they are too busy and it will take an hour to get our food. I'm quite fed up with room service and bad pizza, but given Flossie's limited diet that what we are stuck with. I am having a bag of crisps for dinner tonight.

On the plus side, we found the Playmobil factory, thanks to our new GPS. This was a huge hit with everyone.

I love Playmobil!

So do I!

And I got to realise a lifetime's ambition - to actually sit on a Playmobil horse. 

Ouch!

  

There is a reason Playmobil people don't have bottoms - Playmobil horses are very uncomfy if you have one. 

And here is our little piggy on a little piggy...

In the late afternoon we went to Golden Bay - a lovely spot to have a drink and watch the sunset...if you don't have children, because the kitchen is closed and you have to forgo a drink so you can find them something to eat. GRRRRR

Nice view at Golden Bay

The reason we live near the beach

Today we went to a village famous for its Sunday fish market. It was a bit touristy and very busy, so we abandoned plans to have lunch there and made our way to the Blue Grotto - a series of caves to the south of the island.

Nice fishing boats

We took a trip on a little boat around the caves.

 

It got a bit scary - you can't see Freddie gripping my hand!

Notice how Freddie has wiggled out of his life jacket

We finally managed to find a restaurant that would actually serve us and I had some nice fish, which cheered me up a lot.

On the way back GPS Lady took us on a crazy route via tiny narrow lanes, completely pot-holed. We were praying not to meet anything coming in the opposite direction. Rob loves GPS Lady but I think she has the occasional off day.

I'm hoping to get back to Valetta in the next day or two to see the Caravaggio in the cathedral, given I saw no art in Rome, and also to get a phone sorted out for the rest of our Europe stay.

Living the high life in Malta

So we are now in Malta. We left Rome yesterday and my seasoned travellers made the most of their time in the airport waiting for the plane

Trolley climbing

Making a phone call

Ballet practice

Making new friends

Rob's boss Anton met us at the airport and organised a cab to take us to our very posh hotel. We have a suite with a proper sitting room and dining table. Our bed is enormous and so comfortable.

We went for lunch with Anton and his three children, Alfie, Eddie and Georgia and then for a walk in the park opposite the hotel where we spotted these cute ducklings.

We hung out in the hotel in the afternoon and then went for an early evening walk around the local village. Our hotel is quite a way out of the main town areas and feels very local and Maltese. We bought two enormous bottles of water (75 cents) and a litre of milk (79 cents) - we thought they had made a mistake with the prices!

I will take some photos of all the beautiful houses with their square balconies over the next few days - there is lots of atmosphere to soak up, which I hadn't expected.

We had room service dinner and an early night with a great night's sleep had by all.

This morning Anton, Georgia and Eddie came to meet us and took us on a brief site-seeing tour. First stop was a brilliant playground on the sea front where Georgia and Flossie had fun on the roundabout. Georgia is eleven - Floss is very excited to be hanging out with such a big girl. Georgia is in turns very sweet and indulgent of Floss and then, understandably, gets a bit bored and wanders off!

We just missed the 12 noon canon that they fire every day over the harbour in Valetta, Malta's capital, but stopped for a drink and pastizzi (flaky pastry filled with ricotta - yum!) while Anton and Rob were parking the cars.

We had a quick wander through the main streets of Valetta. Anton says much of it was rebuilt after intense bombing during WWII, but it still seems very ancient to me.

Then we stopped for lunch - rabbit ravioli for me and Rob, another margarita pizza for Flossie and whatever he could get his hands on for our resident dustbin.

Eddie, Anton, Laura, Freddie, Rob and Floss. Georgia took the photo.

We have just got back from having tea at Anton's sister's. She lives in a beautifully restored traditional Maltese house, runs two pre-schools and teaches piano - a very inspiring and warm lady. She has offered to help us find a laundrette and a GPS tomorrow. We definitely need the latter to get around Malta - there are very few signs and the only map we have is at a ridiculous scale for navigating.

There are lots of things to do in Malta - so far on the list are: the beach; the fish market; the Playmobil factory; trying to find Jo's mother's house; Popeye village; and something called Blue Grotto. We are also planning to spend lots of time in the posh hotel spa.

Sun is out and we got some sleep!

Ahhhh! Feeling much more human. I woke up at 6 this morning and despite a bit of nocturnal screaming from Freddie, had a reasonable night's sleep.

We are getting into the Roman swing. Flossie and I went site-seeing yesterday. We saw the big monument to the father of Italy, Victor Emmanuelle II...



and the Colosseum...



She walked for miles, despite having woken at 3.30am. We had a great time discussing how we had to imagine what the Colosseum might have looked like. But her favourite thing was jumping on all the stepping stones outside. We stopped for a gelato on the way back - 75% cacao chocolate for her, which I think was a bit too much of a good thing.

We also saw a lovely wall of butterflies...



We bumped into Rob and Freddie having lunch in a local cafe on the way back. Freddie was entertaining the whole restaurant by sucking up individual strands of spaghetti carbonara. They had had a relaxing morning hanging out and people watching.

There is a little children's shoe shop right next to our apartment, so given Freddie wants to walk everywhere and Flossie's shoes are too small, they both got new pairs. Rob bought some sunglasses and I snuck off to the local fabric shop for 3m Italian wool, 2m cotton and 1.5m of delicious pink and navy silk.

In the afternoon we wandered over the river to Trevestare - a bit more grungy/trendy than where we are staying.


We had a drink in a bar and then let the children run wild in a piazza next to the breath-taking Santa Maria church, covered in mosaics and with a wonderful carved, gilt ceiling.



Flossie had begged to go out for dinner, but when we got home she said she was too tired. Given how far she walked, that wash't really surprising. They were both tucked up by 6.45pm after another dinner of takeaway pizza.

Today, Rob went to Pompeii and the children and I walked to Villa Borghese after breakfast at our local cafe (location of Freddie's spaghetti sucking yesterday). He is a big favourite and got given a biscuit and an orange.

The Villa Borghese is the biggest park in Rome. Italian parks are not big on grass, but we found a tiny spot to sit on. Flossie picked every daisy in sight and Freddie ate every stick and leaf that he could get his hands on. Floss had a ride in a pink princess pumpkin on a carousel managed by possibly the surliest man in Rome.

We walked back, stopping for lunch and gelato on the way. Flossie has regained her appetite and ate a huge slab of pizza. While the gelato we have had so far has been good, it hasn't been anything better than we get in Australia. Until this afternoon, when we queued at a little shop in a very posh street. I had some sorbet that was nice, but Flossie's vanilla was the best ice-cream I've every tasted (and as you probably know, I am something of a connoisseur).

I needed to get some things from the chemist, so we called in at the pharmacy on the way home. As we were leaving, a man rushed up to Floss with a bucket and spade set and gave it to her. Freddie was crying because he didn't want to be in his pram, so the man ran off and bought another one back for him too. So that brings the free things that my children have scored today to 4: 1 x biscuit, 1 x orange, 2 x bucket and spade set!

We didn't get home until after 3pm and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the balloons that the children were given at the shoe shop and the buckets and spades from the chemist!

Tomorrow we fly to Malta. I'm sad to have missed the Sistine Chapel and eating one decent meal at a restaurant, but Rome has been wonderful. It is so true that you connect with people in a different way when you travel with children and the Romans really could not have been more welcoming or generous with my two. And of course, that brings out the best in them - they both seem to be having a great time, especially now everyone has had a bit more sleep.

Raining in Rome

This will be a photo-light post as we haven't really taken any since arriving in Rome. Despite the nice apartment in fab location, the last couple of days have been quite tough. I suppose this was always going to be some of the hardest few days of the trip - it is the biggest time difference we will have to do at 6 hours. The kids have been waking up very early (like 3.30am) and despite going to bed at 7.30pm ourselves, we are still knackered.

Rome is also not particularly pram or crutch friendly (we managed to buy Rob a pair after he struggled for a day without) - lots of cobble stones.

It has been great to see Aleen from my old mothers' group who, amazingly, lives about 10 doors up from our apartment. It was nice for Floss to her son Alex and play with someone her own age (although a bit of girl/boy divide on the toy front - Alex is a big robot fan). It has also given us something to do in the rain as Rome is not great wet weather destination.

Despite all that, I *am* loving being in Italy, finally. I will try to avoid the cliches but the food is bloody amazing and I could have spent 1,500 euros on clothes today with no problem at all. I love all the super stylish old men in immaculate overcoats and lovely cashmere jumpers. Even cheap old supermarket wine is delicious.

Aleen says the only too must-sees at the Colosseum and the Pantheon. We went to the Pantheon yesterday. While it is a bit of a shame that there isn't much information about its history when you get there, in some ways it is nice that the whole thing isn't over managed as it would be in Australia or the UK.

Freddie and I went for a walk to buy pastries in the afternoon and tried out his new backpack. I can't say that it is super comfy for me, but he loved it and looked so cute that he scored a free biscuit at the bakers.

We had a very quiet day today as the children definitely needed a bit of down time. My main achievement was getting Florence to eat 4 tablespoons of rissoni with tomato sauce. She is on strike and is refusing to eat most things unless they involve gelato or chocolate. I had an hour to myself and went shopping only reinforcing how ridiculously expensive everything is in Australia.

Aleen very kindly babysat for us last night so, despite the exhaustion we managed to stay up past 7.30pm and went and drank some nice wine and ate some nice cheese and charcuterie (or Italian equivalent - I am finding it difficult to not speak in French).

Anyway, the result of rich food late at night means it is 3.30am and I am up. As is Flossie - arghhh! This trip would be so much better if we weren't all so tired...

Lx